Ficly

Different Hues

It’s not really blue.
It is aquamarine, turquoise and cyan in stripes with the roof a striking maroon in contrast.

Still, people as a group are a little pushed for time, a little ignorant and rather stubborn, so it has a small plaque in the paving stone in front neatly claiming it as:
‘The Blue House
Built 1706 by The Coleshaw Family
The Oldest Standing Structure.’

Tourists that pass by read the inscription and wonder aloud at why such an odd colour selection had been used. They are met with uncomprehending silence.

It was newly painted last spring. The town council made a fund and did collections to replace the peeling, faded pigment. They raised more than enough and appointed a trust for future redecorations.

Always to be with the same colours; a handyman worked solidly for a few months with an undersized helper and a van lined with paint cans while the local children watch, fascinated, from the safety of the park across the road. It has to remain exactly right.

The Coleshaws don’t live there anymore.

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